I firmly believe modern Star Wars media peaked with Rogue One. It was true to the original canon and expanded upon it. It felt natural. It felt like Star Wars.
If you'd have told me fifteen or twenty years ago that there would've been an Obi-Wan series or a Boba Fett series or a Han Solo movie and that they'd all let me down, I'd never would've believed it.
I love Star Wars, I really do. I want to still love it, but don't. I just don't care anymore. Not because of all the modern American social-political themes that have been inserted into it, but because it doesn't feel like Star Wars anymore.
This trend began with the prequel trilogy and has continued to get worse since. The storytelling has been weak. The themes have been altered. Too much comedy and silliness has been added. I think it takes away from the concepts that were presented in the original films.
These new Disney+ series have been consistent let downs. I just pass on most of the new stuff anymore. I will with the Acolyte as well.
But that's just my .02
That pretty much sums up my feelings. A long long time ago, but very much in this galaxy, I grew up with Star Wars and had a great affection for it. The original trilogy was hardly Oscar worthy material, but truly great fun, and truly broke ground from a technical point of view. The battle of Hoth and the space dogfight sequence at the end of Return of the Jedi still look great today IMO.
Disney paid a vast sum of money for an 'oven ready' universe, and in a few years have sought to destroy it with poor writing, acting and I feel some ropey FX.
I didn't much like The Force Awakens, but it wasn't truly terrible, and I held out hoping things would improve. Rogue One proved to be the Apex for Disney's Star Wars, and it has been downhill ever since.
I don't want to blame what others see as the modern agenda creeping into film, but rather it seems the writers have absolutely no talent or reverence for the source material. Seeing Luke Skywalker flippantly toss a light sabre over his shoulder, in an outrageously out of character moment of unwarranted levity, was a harbinger of things to follow.
Also, I am loathe to retread the ground of Streepers post, as it outlines my thoughts succinctly.
However.......
People seemed to initially like The Mandolorian. I stuck with season 1, but only due to its diminutive run time, and episodic nature, whereupon my waning attention span during an episode, was of little handicap when opting to watch the next. I gave up midway through season 2. This can be pinpointed to the occasion where a poorly costumed frog lady, and her polystyrene eggs had to be transported somewhere in a hot tub by 'Mando'.
I feel the premise of a woodenly acted, faceless, and by extension, expressionless protagonist, attempting communication with a small green baby, could barely sustain one episode let alone an entire season. In the absence of visual creatives like Ralph McQuarrie (look up bis artwork in the originals), production designers lazily sought to copy the look of Bobba Fett for Mando, and then chose to make the next project, one based on Bobba Fett.
It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the next film in the pipeline according to Esquire magazine is due for release in 2026, and has the working title Mandalorian and Grogu. Fucking Hell Disney, really??!!
People may or may not like the execution of Christopher Nolan films, but at least he has original ideas. Imagine if he did Star Wars. Time bending narratives, where entire space battles occur both loudly, and backwards in Jabba the Hutts dreams, all during the 12 parsecs it takes Han Solo to negotiate the Kessel Run.
The only other show I have watched is Andor, based on recommendations. I have seen clips of the others, and they truly look horrendous. Some low points appear to be the mod bikers in Book of Bobba fett, and the forest chase of Leia in Kenobi. I don't think Andor is great either, but compared to what I have seen and heard of the others, it's a massive improvement.
I don't know if anyone is familiar with the series Arcane? This is a 9 part animation based on a computer game of which I was unfamiliar called League of Legends. It's a series of diverse and mainly female led characters and is truly awesome because the writers spend the time writing decent characters, using great voice actors, and world building to a level that the lazy hacks at Disney can only imagine.
Well done Disney, because in little over a decade you have taken a much loved OP, shat it down the toilet and flushed it into the oblivion of the outer galaxy.
